Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Simple Vanilla Cupcake

Its been a while since I baked a cake in the oven. In fact I never baked one in our brand new toaster oven. So I decided to venture into the world of baking cakes in an oven once again after a gap of almost one year. I wanted to start on a healthy note, and I was in a dilemma to choose from the various recipes that use healthy substitutions when it comes to the ingredients that go into the cake batter. Finally I decided on a recipe from Joy Of Baking where I substituted a portion of the All Purpose Flour (Maida) for White whole wheat flour and I skipped the frosting part as both me and V dont enjoy eating frosting, maybe just enjoy viewing it ;-). I did not want to risk this attempt and disappoint myself my ruining the whole batter because of a lot of substitutions. Hence starting with a small attempt of the same for baking healthy. I also wanted to start with something small so that the left-over or wastage remains minimal. Cupcakes suited my needs, hence here I am with the Simple Vanilla Cupcake.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Orange extract or zest of 1 large lemon (optional)

1 cup of all purpose flour + 1/2 cup of white whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt (if using salted butter, skip this)

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

Puffing...Puffing...

Trrrringgg....(the sound of the timer on the toaster oven) indicating...its Done :)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 Degrees C)

Line a 12 cup muffin pan (I had to use a 6 cup muffin pan two times due to the space constraints in my toaster oven)

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and orange extract/lemon zest

In a separate bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt

Add the flour and milk in alternate steps to the egg mixture in a way that it begins and ends with flour. While mixing the batter, use a floding action to combine all ingredients. If using a mixer, use it at low speed and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed

Evenly fill the muffin cups (each cup can be upto half full because if you overfill the batter in the muffin cup, the cupcake will have a alien spaceship like appearance ;-) and there are chances that you will have to clean up a gooey mess later)